Friday, September 21, 2012

No real Watergate stuff today, but Nixon is busy plotting the second term. From Haldeman's diary:

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Later today he had E[hrlichman] and [OMB Director Cap] Weinberger up to Camp David for a general meeting....
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The huge social programs have been tried. They don't work. People don't want more on welfare. The don't want to help the working poor, and our mood has to be harder on this, not softer.
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Most of the programs he wants to drop are in [the old Department of] HEW, the higher-education subsidy, and that kind of thing. Make it clear to the NEA that they supported McGovern and they're not welcome anymore at the White House. In the health field, we should do much less....On welfare, we should support HR 1 until the election. Afterward, we should not send it back to Congress.
[...]
Say as little as possible during the campaign so we have the fewest promises to have to keep, so that we have an ability to interpret our mandate our way.

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And I'll sneak ahead and grab a bit more from the diary, from the next day:

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Got into some discussion [with Nixon] on postelection ideas. On Supreme Court appointments, they're to be all conservatives. The next one is to be a Catholic, the best ethnic we can get, or the Fordham Dean. Then we need a woman. He's not concerned about Jews on either the Cabinet or the Court, any of the courts, but will keep [Herb] Stein and K[issinger]. As a guideline, we should work for Catholics, Labor, Ethnics, Democrats. Not blacks, not Jews. No Democrat is to be appointed to anything unless he supported the P. In other words, it's only our Democrats that are to be considered at all.

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I don't know about you, but I find this stuff just fascinating. It's such a mix of smart politics, cheap revenge fantasies and resentment, actual interest in policy, and self-defeating deviousness. It's just too bad he had to go and ruin it all so we can't have tapes like this from all the presidents...